An Old Tibetan Version Of Ramayana

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

Page 1

AN OLD TIBETAN VERSION OF THE RĀMĀYANA
BY
J. W. DE JONG
In 1929 F. W. Thomas announced the discovery of a Tibetan version of the Rāmāyaṇa story among the manuscripts brought back from Tun-huang by Sir Aurel Stein in the beginning of this century 1). A few years later Marcelle Lalou described two other manuscripts, which also contain fragments of the story of Rāma and Sitā 2). In his article Thomas gave a summary of three of his manuscripts and translated most of the verses. One of the Paris manuscripts has been edited and translated by J. K. Balbir in 1963 3). In a volume published last year in memory of Marcelle Lalou, I have contributed an edition and translation of the second of the Paris manuscripts 4). In view of the importance of this Tibetan version, a complete edition and translation of all six manuscripts is highly desirable. For some time I have been working on this project which will comprise an introduction, an edition of the six fragments, a translation, notes and a glossary. It is not an easy task to translate these fragments which are written in preclassical Tibetan. Especially the verses are often difficult to understand. However, the greater part of the texts can be translated without too many difficulties. I hope that even a provisional translation will be of interest to scholars concerned with the history of the Rāmāyaṇa recensions.
None of the six manuscripts contains a date. Some of the manuscripts, found in Tun-huang, have been brought there from Central Tibet, but probably most of them have been written by local scribes. Many Tibetan texts are written on the verso of Chinese manuscripts.
1) F. W. Thomas, A Rāmāyaṇa Story in Tibetan from Chinese Turkestan, Indian Studies in Honor of Charles Rockwell Lanman (Cambridge, Mass., 1929), PP. 193-212.
2) Marcelle Lalou, L'histoire de Rāma en tibétain, Journal asiatique, 1936, pp. 560-562.
3) J. K. Balbir, L'histoire de Rāma en tibétain d'après des textes de Touenhouang. Edition du texte et traduction annotée. Paris, 1963. For my review see Indo-Iranian Journal, IX, 1966, pp. 227-235.
4) J. W. de Jong, Un fragment de l'histoire de Rāma en tibétain, Études tibétaines dédiées à la mémoire de Marcelle Lalou (Paris, 1971), pp. 127-141.